January 12, 2010
Mindful Meditations for Executives
At Planet Mindful we are all but mind-less. We really like to be consciously aware and pay attention to what *is* instead of *what is not*. This year, 2010, I'm continuing to teach mindful meditation but am now opening up to yoga studios around the bay area to share this beautiful gift of relaxation for stressed out executives.
My background is that I'm
1) an avid practitioner and student of yoga and meditation
2) Certified Massage Therapist
3) California State Licensed Somatic (Body-Oriented)
Psychotherapist.
Basic Premise: I help people get reconnected with their body and mind.
I currently teach this class to yoga studios so please send along to anyone you know if you feel like we might be a match:
Mindful Meditation for Executives
By Alison Leigh, MFT,
Mindfulness Meditation Instructor
Mindful Psychotherapy and Conscious Bodywork
Intro to Mindful Meditation for Executives: A journey within
The most important journey you can take is within yourself.
This journey allows you to explore what really matters- YOU.
The path to mindful meditation for executives culminates from years of practice of being mindful, real
and authentic with yourself FIRST. To be in touch with your essence allows you much
greater capabilities within your own self plus helps tremendously with your relationships with others.
You will feel more relaxed, rejuvenated and begin to see how allowing yourself
rest will *increase* your future potential in business and in relationships.
The first and most important relationship begins with you.
Practicing mindfulness, meditation and centering yourself around creating space for
all of that, will increase your drive at work at the same time as allow yourself
to let go of problems that can be self created.
Watch yourself grow and succeed in every day transactions both at work and at home.
Imagine yourself at work, conscious, grateful, and being reminded of how relaxed you are while
you achieve everything you always were meant to.
Alison Leigh Siegel, MFT, CMT
2121 26th St. #202 SF, Ca 94107
Project First Feel then heal
(paving the path toward enlightenment)
firstfeelthenheal@gmail.com
415-377-9851
http://planetmindful.blogspot.com/2009/08/embodied-mindfulness-techniques-to.html
My background is that I'm
1) an avid practitioner and student of yoga and meditation
2) Certified Massage Therapist
3) California State Licensed Somatic (Body-Oriented)
Psychotherapist.
Basic Premise: I help people get reconnected with their body and mind.
I currently teach this class to yoga studios so please send along to anyone you know if you feel like we might be a match:
Mindful Meditation for Executives
By Alison Leigh, MFT,
Mindfulness Meditation Instructor
Mindful Psychotherapy and Conscious Bodywork
Intro to Mindful Meditation for Executives: A journey within
The most important journey you can take is within yourself.
This journey allows you to explore what really matters- YOU.
The path to mindful meditation for executives culminates from years of practice of being mindful, real
and authentic with yourself FIRST. To be in touch with your essence allows you much
greater capabilities within your own self plus helps tremendously with your relationships with others.
You will feel more relaxed, rejuvenated and begin to see how allowing yourself
rest will *increase* your future potential in business and in relationships.
The first and most important relationship begins with you.
Practicing mindfulness, meditation and centering yourself around creating space for
all of that, will increase your drive at work at the same time as allow yourself
to let go of problems that can be self created.
Watch yourself grow and succeed in every day transactions both at work and at home.
Imagine yourself at work, conscious, grateful, and being reminded of how relaxed you are while
you achieve everything you always were meant to.
Alison Leigh Siegel, MFT, CMT
2121 26th St. #202 SF, Ca 94107
Project First Feel then heal
(paving the path toward enlightenment)
firstfeelthenheal@gmail.com
415-377-9851
http://planetmindful.blogspot.com/2009/08/embodied-mindfulness-techniques-to.html
January 3, 2010
What is Meditation in the traditional sense?
What is meditation?
Meditation is a grounding and centering practice that people set aside during thier day to focus and gain conscious awareness of their present being state. Meditation is a way for you to cultivate a connection to yourself, your body and your mind all at once.
At the start of practice, I help you slow down your cognitive mind (the one that keeps us up at night) and watch it begin to de-accelerate. After some practice, we learn to stop thoughts and transfer our attention to our being state. When you become adept in meditation, you learn to enter the pinnacle state of meditation called Samadhi. In Samadhi the mind is perfectly merged with Nirvana, the essence of life.
What does meditation do for you?
Meditation recharges your battery, aligns you with what *is* and and brings you into deeper states of consciousness.
It also can bring clarity to your mind thus freeing you up of worries and inhibitions. It also empowers you to accomplish things in the daily world by connecting you to the power that lies within the universe.
Many styles of meditation practice exist today.
They generally involve focusing on energy centers in the body, concentrating on a picture or image, chanting, or breathing exercises. Regardless of the style, they all share a common goal: stopping cognitive thought and going inward. When our thoughts stop, we can connect to worlds of light, power, wisdom, and pure consciousness. You will find that each meditation session brings a little more clarity and power into your life. Meditation takes practice, so don't expect too much too soon. Just stop breath and relax and let the mind flow.
-Alison Leigh, MFT
Mindfulness Instructor
Meditation is a grounding and centering practice that people set aside during thier day to focus and gain conscious awareness of their present being state. Meditation is a way for you to cultivate a connection to yourself, your body and your mind all at once.
At the start of practice, I help you slow down your cognitive mind (the one that keeps us up at night) and watch it begin to de-accelerate. After some practice, we learn to stop thoughts and transfer our attention to our being state. When you become adept in meditation, you learn to enter the pinnacle state of meditation called Samadhi. In Samadhi the mind is perfectly merged with Nirvana, the essence of life.
What does meditation do for you?
Meditation recharges your battery, aligns you with what *is* and and brings you into deeper states of consciousness.
It also can bring clarity to your mind thus freeing you up of worries and inhibitions. It also empowers you to accomplish things in the daily world by connecting you to the power that lies within the universe.
Many styles of meditation practice exist today.
They generally involve focusing on energy centers in the body, concentrating on a picture or image, chanting, or breathing exercises. Regardless of the style, they all share a common goal: stopping cognitive thought and going inward. When our thoughts stop, we can connect to worlds of light, power, wisdom, and pure consciousness. You will find that each meditation session brings a little more clarity and power into your life. Meditation takes practice, so don't expect too much too soon. Just stop breath and relax and let the mind flow.
-Alison Leigh, MFT
Mindfulness Instructor
December 17, 2009
Mindfulness in Action: Alison Leigh, MFT
Mindfulness in action
I am in the process of writing a book about mindfulness in action. This means taking action with mindfulness. Of course, mindfulness will be addressed more in detail but what i would first like to share here, on this blog, is about the *urgency* of being mindful. This is of course an irony, because to be mindful requires not urgency, but being present and having the ability to reflect what *is*, instead of *what is not*. For this particular blog, I just want to comment on what I think is so important in terms of our world approaching mindfulness with intent. I wish to publish this in a book form one day, but for now, I am just using this blog to share, allow for comments and gather more evidence and experiential data to share with my readers.
So, this is what I've come up with so far.
In this book, I will attempt demonstrate, educate, inspire and procure a new awareness of how to *be* in this world. This includes the state of *becoming* as well as how one actually *is*. This is philosophical and psychological in nature as well as includes roots in Taoism and Buddhism.
Mindfulness has already won great prestige as both a practice as well as a useful and effective tool in business.
The book will compel readers to take better charge of their lives; thus becoming and shifting into a new existence both in body and mind (and spirit). This new alignment will entail many exercises for the reader to do both at home, work , alone and with others.
The purpose of this book is not only to introduce a new paradigm shift but moreover to have the reader actually experience this shift. They will become more conscious of their actions and more purpose driven. With that, the world or at least the ones aware of this book could partake in many more peaceful activities as a sign that they are taking their time to be humans with purpose instead of much of what actively goes on today: purposely driven humans. I will attempt to deliver an explanation of our current society: rat race hell and contrast it with being in loving kindness, mindfulness and a state of awareness where one feels aware of the present moment as opposed to living in the future or the past.
This book comes at a time of urgency for the world to start to begin to understand that there are different ways of living. It has been said that American’s especially feel as if they or others “should do it their way”, or moreoever it seems that we tend to project without mindfulness our egocentric vision as being superior in the world. We now know, as seen by the latest terrorist acts of destruction among other things, that we basically can't expect that this kind of thinking will do any good.
Point is the time is NOW. I would like to concentrate on is this: a change is happening NOW and won’t stop until we take notice.
How does one take notice? What does that mean?
Taking notice is in itself an interesting concept. To notice something is to become aware of it. Becoming aware of something uses the senses to let our psyche know that something *is*. Our experiential feelings, sensations allow us to notice when something is happening because we *feel* it. If we didn't have senses to *feel*, then we wouldn't know. Right?
How can we know however that we have feelings? We could ask, we know because we *are* and we *are* because we know. It is a bit of semantics and also philosophical in nauture that we drive ourselves to know what we know, be who we are, and sit in awareness until we become aware. it is complex and can be difficult to trudge through this thick field of knowingness. This is precisely why being aware is so helpful.
When we are aware, we know what we know, we are who we are and we live Being aware and noticing are disciplines, just like yoga, golf and/or working. It is all the same, but different because when we are “noticing” things, we are aware. If we are aware, then what? We must now look at what it is like to be aware.
The word aware (historical note) comes from…and it means focused, sensate, alive, etc. awareness as a concept has been around for over 3000 years. In this country, it is just making headway.
Time for a break. Now, what I would like you to do is notice what you are feeling, sensating and doing, thinking, etc while you are reading this book. I want you to feel the pages of the book, notice your eyes going back and forth, and noitice for those of you whom don’t have a book in their hands, that you don’t have a book in your hands. Just notice that. notice that this page said to feel your book, and notice that you don’t have one. How is this for you? What did you say to yourself when I said notice the pages? Did you say, “but I don’t’…” ??
In any case, noticing is paying attention to the very small things, the smallest of actions that we usually take for granted on a day to day basis. How many times a day do you notice when you have to go to the bathroom? How do you notice that? you notice that because something in your brain/body (*) is signaling to you that the bladder is full. Right? Right. So, the body communicates to us in many ways and one is so you can notice more fully.
Another example. When you drove to where you are right now, or at least stopped at where you are now to read this, did you notice how you did that? Did you notice yourself getting ready with a jacket or not? Did you notice what you were thinking about on the way here? Did you just wake up or take a nap? Where is your body right now? Do you have any feelings/sensations going through yourself?
If you answered some of these questions affirmative then you probably were aware, or were noticing it. So, what do you do now. NOTHING. You simply keep noticing that you are noticing. Eventually you will shift your conscisouness little by little. Shifiting takes time and sometimes it happens all at once and sometimes it happens in such a small way that you would not have ever noticed. Ever noticed how you grew up from that old highschool picture? Perhaps not. Point is, you couldn’t see or track changes perfectly because life was happening. Part of you was aware and part of you was not. That is the old paradigm.
The new one is about being mindful, aware and noticing. And why again would you want to do this? Because the world is shifting consciosness and the new phase people won’t be able to
What do readers want to know about? I’m not sure I’m producing a book for that reason. I feel I am producing a book as a tool for learning. I feel compelled to share these ideas as a way of making a new dialog with people are shifting into a new state of consciousness. What I mean by consciousness is that it is a state of being. It is also a state of not being. We can argue many things, but the main point is not about the word and what it stands for’ but rather that there is a shift.
If you are not aware of this by reading this book, you will learn to and how to become aware. For some, being aware is something to just think about. A place to “go to” but not to stay for example. Others will have a different viewpoint about how they place themselves in this space. Again, it is not about your thought of the word, but more about a shift.
Throughout the book I will keep shifting and changing and reminding you of things you already think you know. This is to begin to wake you up to the already existing ‘now” that you have just become conscious of. I do that, repeat myself, insert different tones, speak to you louder, etc, because the mind is on autopilot most of the time and can’t get off unless you have someone GET YOU OFF.
About getting off, and you will also see that I use sexuality, humor, insight and metaphor
To trick your brain to begin listening. What did you think of when I said, “get you off?”. Sure, of course and you want to know why? Because our limbic system (we’ll go into this later) is on autopilot in what we call a “reactionary state of being”. (*) It’s job is to pick up the pace, shoot aderenline into your bloodstream so that you can “fight or flight”.
Fight or flight reaction and defense mechanisms have been used forever to keep our animal instincts alive. If you study the animal behavioral model in terms of predatory vs. victim nature, you will see that animals have the very first instinct in the wild to either fight or fleet.
As in the book titled, “Awakening the tiger”, peter levine, ph.d demonstrates an example of fight or flight response mechanisms. To this degree, human beings have not lost their sense of smell, touch, vision, etc because it is the exact thing they need in order to survive. Eat or be eaten. Sink or swim, you get the picture.
So, have I got your attention yet? Good. One of the reasons, like I said that I will be using the same context over and over again is to get your brain to begin to use a system in your body called the “parasymathitic sy.’. This is the system that takes time to slowwwww down. When we relax, calm down, and retire for the day (naturally) we shift over the phisioligical expression of the body into the consciousness piece. (I will explain more here about phisological responses and use candice pert, ph.d to site some examples).
So, what I’m getting at is this: as a human being, we shift. Change is something you can always count on. In terms of how we do this, we are working on that as well. Important thing for you to remember is this: your body will feel the shifting that your mind makes, but only after you notice it.
So, now we open with a topic on “noticing”.
Mindfulness in today’s world
1.What and why is this important?
2.What’s the rush?
3.Why me?
4.Why not me?
5.Can’t a why just be a why.
6.And how
I am in the process of writing a book about mindfulness in action. This means taking action with mindfulness. Of course, mindfulness will be addressed more in detail but what i would first like to share here, on this blog, is about the *urgency* of being mindful. This is of course an irony, because to be mindful requires not urgency, but being present and having the ability to reflect what *is*, instead of *what is not*. For this particular blog, I just want to comment on what I think is so important in terms of our world approaching mindfulness with intent. I wish to publish this in a book form one day, but for now, I am just using this blog to share, allow for comments and gather more evidence and experiential data to share with my readers.
So, this is what I've come up with so far.
In this book, I will attempt demonstrate, educate, inspire and procure a new awareness of how to *be* in this world. This includes the state of *becoming* as well as how one actually *is*. This is philosophical and psychological in nature as well as includes roots in Taoism and Buddhism.
Mindfulness has already won great prestige as both a practice as well as a useful and effective tool in business.
The book will compel readers to take better charge of their lives; thus becoming and shifting into a new existence both in body and mind (and spirit). This new alignment will entail many exercises for the reader to do both at home, work , alone and with others.
The purpose of this book is not only to introduce a new paradigm shift but moreover to have the reader actually experience this shift. They will become more conscious of their actions and more purpose driven. With that, the world or at least the ones aware of this book could partake in many more peaceful activities as a sign that they are taking their time to be humans with purpose instead of much of what actively goes on today: purposely driven humans. I will attempt to deliver an explanation of our current society: rat race hell and contrast it with being in loving kindness, mindfulness and a state of awareness where one feels aware of the present moment as opposed to living in the future or the past.
This book comes at a time of urgency for the world to start to begin to understand that there are different ways of living. It has been said that American’s especially feel as if they or others “should do it their way”, or moreoever it seems that we tend to project without mindfulness our egocentric vision as being superior in the world. We now know, as seen by the latest terrorist acts of destruction among other things, that we basically can't expect that this kind of thinking will do any good.
Point is the time is NOW. I would like to concentrate on is this: a change is happening NOW and won’t stop until we take notice.
How does one take notice? What does that mean?
Taking notice is in itself an interesting concept. To notice something is to become aware of it. Becoming aware of something uses the senses to let our psyche know that something *is*. Our experiential feelings, sensations allow us to notice when something is happening because we *feel* it. If we didn't have senses to *feel*, then we wouldn't know. Right?
How can we know however that we have feelings? We could ask, we know because we *are* and we *are* because we know. It is a bit of semantics and also philosophical in nauture that we drive ourselves to know what we know, be who we are, and sit in awareness until we become aware. it is complex and can be difficult to trudge through this thick field of knowingness. This is precisely why being aware is so helpful.
When we are aware, we know what we know, we are who we are and we live Being aware and noticing are disciplines, just like yoga, golf and/or working. It is all the same, but different because when we are “noticing” things, we are aware. If we are aware, then what? We must now look at what it is like to be aware.
The word aware (historical note) comes from…and it means focused, sensate, alive, etc. awareness as a concept has been around for over 3000 years. In this country, it is just making headway.
Time for a break. Now, what I would like you to do is notice what you are feeling, sensating and doing, thinking, etc while you are reading this book. I want you to feel the pages of the book, notice your eyes going back and forth, and noitice for those of you whom don’t have a book in their hands, that you don’t have a book in your hands. Just notice that. notice that this page said to feel your book, and notice that you don’t have one. How is this for you? What did you say to yourself when I said notice the pages? Did you say, “but I don’t’…” ??
In any case, noticing is paying attention to the very small things, the smallest of actions that we usually take for granted on a day to day basis. How many times a day do you notice when you have to go to the bathroom? How do you notice that? you notice that because something in your brain/body (*) is signaling to you that the bladder is full. Right? Right. So, the body communicates to us in many ways and one is so you can notice more fully.
Another example. When you drove to where you are right now, or at least stopped at where you are now to read this, did you notice how you did that? Did you notice yourself getting ready with a jacket or not? Did you notice what you were thinking about on the way here? Did you just wake up or take a nap? Where is your body right now? Do you have any feelings/sensations going through yourself?
If you answered some of these questions affirmative then you probably were aware, or were noticing it. So, what do you do now. NOTHING. You simply keep noticing that you are noticing. Eventually you will shift your conscisouness little by little. Shifiting takes time and sometimes it happens all at once and sometimes it happens in such a small way that you would not have ever noticed. Ever noticed how you grew up from that old highschool picture? Perhaps not. Point is, you couldn’t see or track changes perfectly because life was happening. Part of you was aware and part of you was not. That is the old paradigm.
The new one is about being mindful, aware and noticing. And why again would you want to do this? Because the world is shifting consciosness and the new phase people won’t be able to
What do readers want to know about? I’m not sure I’m producing a book for that reason. I feel I am producing a book as a tool for learning. I feel compelled to share these ideas as a way of making a new dialog with people are shifting into a new state of consciousness. What I mean by consciousness is that it is a state of being. It is also a state of not being. We can argue many things, but the main point is not about the word and what it stands for’ but rather that there is a shift.
If you are not aware of this by reading this book, you will learn to and how to become aware. For some, being aware is something to just think about. A place to “go to” but not to stay for example. Others will have a different viewpoint about how they place themselves in this space. Again, it is not about your thought of the word, but more about a shift.
Throughout the book I will keep shifting and changing and reminding you of things you already think you know. This is to begin to wake you up to the already existing ‘now” that you have just become conscious of. I do that, repeat myself, insert different tones, speak to you louder, etc, because the mind is on autopilot most of the time and can’t get off unless you have someone GET YOU OFF.
About getting off, and you will also see that I use sexuality, humor, insight and metaphor
To trick your brain to begin listening. What did you think of when I said, “get you off?”. Sure, of course and you want to know why? Because our limbic system (we’ll go into this later) is on autopilot in what we call a “reactionary state of being”. (*) It’s job is to pick up the pace, shoot aderenline into your bloodstream so that you can “fight or flight”.
Fight or flight reaction and defense mechanisms have been used forever to keep our animal instincts alive. If you study the animal behavioral model in terms of predatory vs. victim nature, you will see that animals have the very first instinct in the wild to either fight or fleet.
As in the book titled, “Awakening the tiger”, peter levine, ph.d demonstrates an example of fight or flight response mechanisms. To this degree, human beings have not lost their sense of smell, touch, vision, etc because it is the exact thing they need in order to survive. Eat or be eaten. Sink or swim, you get the picture.
So, have I got your attention yet? Good. One of the reasons, like I said that I will be using the same context over and over again is to get your brain to begin to use a system in your body called the “parasymathitic sy.’. This is the system that takes time to slowwwww down. When we relax, calm down, and retire for the day (naturally) we shift over the phisioligical expression of the body into the consciousness piece. (I will explain more here about phisological responses and use candice pert, ph.d to site some examples).
So, what I’m getting at is this: as a human being, we shift. Change is something you can always count on. In terms of how we do this, we are working on that as well. Important thing for you to remember is this: your body will feel the shifting that your mind makes, but only after you notice it.
So, now we open with a topic on “noticing”.
Mindfulness in today’s world
1.What and why is this important?
2.What’s the rush?
3.Why me?
4.Why not me?
5.Can’t a why just be a why.
6.And how
November 24, 2009
Planet MIndful THRIVES: using mindfulness in healing sexual trauma
Healing sexual trauma is something that is under represented and part of the reason I believe that is so important to pay attention to it. As written in my blog about women in healing sexual trauma through bodywork and somatic psychotherapy, http://www.justbegoodtoyourself.blogspot.com, you will find some questions you might ask yourself while going through your recovery process. If you are not in your process yet, even better. These questions will help you unravel some things you might want to consider.
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